So you are starting a new business and need to develop a logo as part of your brand identity or looking to rebrand an existing business. Where do you start? A lot of small business owners will try to create their own. Unless they have had experience with this process, it will be a frustrating and non-productive effort. Your logo is not your brand identity by itself, it is a component of your brand identity of which has to be cohesive with all the other elements. In this article, we will talk about those elements and how we create the formula for a cohesive logo design.
You will see that there are several steps in the process for the development of a logo. Some are more extensive than others but the process is basically the same. To make the process as simple as possible we have created a 5 step process which guides you to the completion of the logo design.
These steps are:
- Discovery
- Research
- Brainstorm
- Design
- Define
Old Logo for Allstar Horse Show Association that the customer did not have in vector format and wanted an update. (Notice the poor quality?)
Discovery: While this may sound like a complicated step, it is mainly a brainstorming session. In order to create a logo that truly represents your brand there are some essential components you need to think about.
- What does your business do?
- What is the history of your business?
- Are there any notable nuances about the founders and how the business was created?
- What is the story of the business?
- What industry are you looking to enter?
- Who are your competitors?
- What is your intended audience or customer base?
Research: This step goes more in depth about the industry. Who are the competitors, how do they represent their business, what differentiates you from your competitors. Look at their websites, their visual representations and their branding. You want to ensure that you don’t plagiarize an existing design and style while also ensuring your new logo will stand out!
Initially the customer wanted simply to include a yellow boarder and the name of the association.
Brainstorm: Review the information you have assembled and develop a strategy for creating logo concepts. This is where you will conceptualize possible design directions keeping in mind 3 basic principles. You will start sketching ideas during this process to consider for your design.
- Appropriateness: Keep the concepts appropriate for the business
- Simplicity: so that the logo will work in various sizes and conditions
- Memorable: you want to be distinctive so it is memorable
Design: Now that you have your strategy in place and ideas/concepts sketched out, you will start building the elements of your design. Here you will eliminate the ideas from the brainstorming session that may not fit really well and develop the ideas that fit well. You may even eliminate all your ideas from the brainstorm session and go back to review and recreate new ideas.
This is where the designers come in. You don’t need to be an artist to sketch your vision and help the designer bring it to life! The better an idea of what you want the quicker the designer can get you renditions! Designers will test shapes, colors, fonts and format. This phase typically will take a few days to a few weeks.
After consult with the owners our designers came up with this fresh and inclusive logo building off of the old branding but giving the association a fresh new look!
Define: When it comes to maintaining the integrity of your brand identity, quality and consistency are key. Given the number of places your logo will live—and the number of people who may need to use it—it’s important to define a set of rules and guidelines for how to treat your logo. This is the process of creating a branding guidance document. You will use your logo for letter head, printed promotional or informational documents as well as signage. This document will define the various conditions in which the logo may be used and how to properly format the logo under those conditions. It also includes colors, fonts and variations of the logo. This is something that can be created in house or at the hands of professionals.
This may sound complicated, but the experts at Paramount Signs will guide you through the process to create a logo that will represent your business in a memorable, professional way. Our designers are ready to work with you one on one to take your vision and bring it to life!
If you’re considering creating a new logo for your business, give the professionals at Paramount Signs a call for a free consultation.
